1. Sleep Related Eating Disorder
It’s hard enough for some people to control their eating while awake, and for people with sleep-related eating disorder the bingeing doesn’t stop when the lights go out. Sufferers eat and drink compulsively after waking up at night, though some are only partially awake. What do they tend to eat? You guessed it: sugary, high-calorie foods. Source: American Academy of Sleep Medicine.
2. Fatal Familial Insomnia
Sleep to death? Yes, it’s possible but very, very rare. Fatal familial insomnia is caused by a genetic mutation which occurs in only a few dozen families in the world. The unfortunate souls are plagued by difficulty in sleeping at first, but symptoms soon include dementia, loss of energy, and acting out dreams. They fall into a state of mental and physical impairment, caught between sleeping and waking. Physical symptoms like fever, rapid breathing, and increased heart rate are also present. In the end, patients can literally waste away. Some fall into a coma. Death comes within months or a few years, usually as the result of a complication like infection rather than the illness itself. Source: American Academy of Sleep Medicine.